1. Field of the Invention
Systems and methods consistent with the principles of the invention relate generally to communications and, more particularly, to detecting potential communications fraud.
2. Description of Related Art
The advent and rise of the Internet has permitted the widespread use of electronic forms of communication across vast distances at high speed. The ubiquitousness of Internet communications has led, however, to various attempts to misuse such communications in a fraudulent manner. One such type of fraudulent communication involves the attempt by one party to impersonate another trusted party. For example, in the context of accessing documents, such as from sites on the Internet, accessed documents may appear to be hosted by a trusted party, and the accessed documents may request that a user divulge personal information such as account name and password, bank information, or other private or personal data. Any personal information divulged to the impersonating site may subsequently be fraudulently misused. Another type of fraudulent communication involves e-mails that possibly include falsified headers or addressing information that claim to be from another party. Such e-mails may include links to fake documents that request a user to divulge personal information.
Certain types of fraudulent communications originating from an impersonating party, therefore, may be mistaken as originating from a trusted other party resulting in the divulging of confidential personal information that can be fraudulently misused.